Clover
by Cassandra Bartoli
Summary: Once Lily and James become a couple, Lily begins to have hallucinations and dreams about clovers. The clover represents the three parts of the Potter family- Harry, the top leaf, is white because he will, eventually, save the world, and he's also faint b
1. Chapter One

Disclaimer:  
  
The brilliant J.K. Rowling has invented her brilliant characters- which I am using!! However, the plot is mine, imported fresh from the depths of my brain- enjoy!  
  
Title:  
  
"Clover"  
  
Author:  
  
Cassandra Bartoli  
  
Summary:  
  
Lily and James are a couple, after many transformations and changes. Soon, Lily begins having hallucinations and dreams about clovers and flashes of bright green light. The clover will come to represent the three parts of the Potter family- Lily is the left leaf, James the right, and Harry is the top leaf, still faint because he doesn't exist yet. Harry's leaf is also white, which represents his task to save the world. (We'll go into the Harry stuff later, in a sequel, if this one is popular) The clover also represents the Potter family's Irish heritage.  
  
Chapter One:  
  
Lily Evans slammed her books down on her desk angrily.  
  
"God, Professor Mulligan really gets on my nerves sometimes!" she said, to no one in particular, grinding her top row of teeth against her bottom row.  
  
Her friend, Keladryna Pullham, smiled sympathetically and said,  
  
"Professor Newt was on my back today too. Whenever winter exams are right around the corner, the professors never give us a moment of spare time."  
  
"Which makes us want to fail their class," chimed in Dessa Emmanuel, Lily's other friend, making the Gryffindor girls laugh.  
  
Lily flopped down on her scarlet four-poster lazily.  
  
"Well, it's the weekend. Do you guys feel like going into Hogsmeade tomorrow?"  
  
she asked.  
  
From somewhere below the sixth year Gryffindor girls' dormitory came a loud bang, then some wild laughter and a faint smell of smoke.  
  
"Sirius and James," the girls all smiled, and ran down the spiral, metal stairs to see what had happened.  
  
Gregory Buttkiss, the dorkiest kid in Gryffindor, was stuck in one of the poufy red armchairs that adorned the Gryffindor common room.  
  
Apparently, James Potter and Sirius Black had placed a Filibuster's Firework carefully in the seat of the armchair, and it had gone off when Gregory sat on it. Now, poor Gregory was stuck in a hole of fabric and springs- and was too fat to get out.  
  
James and Sirius were still laughing hysterically, now joined by some of the younger Gryffindors.  
  
Dessa was having trouble hiding her smiles, and Kel suppressed a snort. They didn't want to laugh too obviously, because they knew Lily didn't like seeing other people made fun of. But Lily was feeling strange.  
  
"Ah, what the hell," Lily mumbled, and grinned, chocolate eyes sparkling in the candlelight that lit the Gryffindor common room.  
  
She walked over to Gregory and offered a hand to help him out. He took it, and she pulled him out of the chair.  
  
"Thanks, Lily," he flirtily smiled, and sidled off to his dorm room, pulling his huge pants up off his butt.  
  
Dessa burst into laughter.  
  
"Lily- you know, I reckon he was trying to hit on you!" she gasped. Kel snorted.  
  
"Shut up and stop snorting," Lily grumbled, but she grinned anyway, and repaired the chair with a flick of her wand.  
  
Later that night, Lily lay awake, breathing softly and looking out the window at the stars twinkling above the lake.  
  
It had been true, what Dessa said, that Gregory was trying to hit on her, or at least he liked her. No other boy liked Lily in the whole of Hogwarts- no other that was the same age or older than her, anyhow. That was pretty pathetic. A tear trickled down Lily's cheek slowly. Maybe she ought to lose some weight, and maybe she ought to start using more make-up. Should she get contacts? Probably, if she wanted to get a guy to like her.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~a month later*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Lily walked off the Hogwarts Express, lugging her suitcase behind her. Her newly cut hair slapped her face as the wind blew her into a tall boy.  
  
"Shit!" she exclaimed, "Sorry."  
  
"Hey, a new girl! Do you need me to help you with-" the boy said.  
  
"James, it's Lily, and no thanks, I don't need help with my suitcase. I'm fine," Lily said, smiling to herself that he hadn't recognized her.  
  
Over break, Lily had worked out every day. She had lost 15 pounds, gotten contact lenses, had a haircut, and had gone on a big shopping spree with her mother  
  
Now, Lily was wearing a snug fitting black robe, and some carefully done brown eye-makeup. (OK, that's all the clichÃ© stuff I'm doing. ( )  
  
James' eyes popped open.  
  
"Wow, Lily, you look great!" he said appreciatively.  
  
"Thanks," Lily grinned, and walked off, with difficulty because of the wind, to the castle.  
  
Later, when Lily was unpacking her trunk, Dessa and Keladryna burst into the room.  
  
"Lil! We heard you'd got back from James and-" they began.  
  
"And what?" Lily asked.  
  
"Oh my God, Lil, you're beautiful," Dessa whispered, while Kel pretended to faint on the floor. Kel's almond colored lips smiled, and her coffee-tinted frame jumped up to hug Lily hello.  
  
Lily giggled.  
  
"Thanks you guys," she said quietly, "I really appreciate that."  
  
Dessa let out a shout,  
  
"Wooo-hooo! Those boys will be hitting on you now!"  
  
The three girls burst out in laughter, and collapsed on the floor, still hugging each other, and laughing.  
  
The next morning, Saturday, Lily sat alone at the Gryffindor table, blowing on her oatmeal to cool it. She had woken up early because of a strange dream, and decided that it would have been too spooky to go back to sleep.  
  
In her dream, Lily had been walking with James, arm in arm, laughing about something and cuddling up closer and closer. Then the scene had switched abruptly to a wedding- her wedding, with James Potter. Again, the picture had vanished, to be replaced with a hospital scene. In it, Lily had been lying on a white bed, holding a baby boy and smiling down at his bright green eyes. And then, the scene had changed for the last time.  
  
This scene Lily could not think of a logical reason for. She was looking from above at the ruins of a small cottage. The remaining walls were smoking, and singed with the black of fire. Over the whole scene hovered a large, green clover, with two leaves. The third leaf, at the top, was just a shimmering white light. And then, Lily had heard a high pitched cackle and a scream that sounded faint, as if coming from the mysterious depths of the past.  
  
At that moment, Lily had woken up.  
  
(A/N: well? What do you think? I didn't want to make it too clichÃ©, but it's kinda hard, you know? You read so many of the same stories, and you think, wow, that's logical reasoning, and so you use it. (hey, at least I realized that I'm being clichÃ©) anyway, please click that little button and tell me what you thought of my story. Luv, cassie) 


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer:  
  
You know, come to think of it, I do own Harry Potter and all of the other great characters! Except I don't. So read my story- with someone else's characters- and review!  
  
Chapter 2:  
  
Around 8:30, more students began filing in, most looking tousle- haired and puffy-eyed, still not fully recovered from the long night's sleep.  
  
Lily sat, with her hands wrapped around a huge mug of tea, and mused still about her dream, oblivious to the other peoples' shouts and conversations. She wasn't too sure what she wanted to do today. All she wanted to do was think.  
  
A few years ago, Lily began having these dreams about a car crash, over and over again. Some nights, Lily wouldn't want to close her eyes, because she knew that the spitting image of the car crash would again come to live in her mind. A few months later, the dreams stopped. But after a week, both of Lily's parents were killed in a car crash.  
  
Lily didn't want to tell herself that somehow she had predicted her parents' death. Yet now, as she thought over her latest dream, she couldn't help wondering if somehow she could see what would happen in the future through her dreams.  
  
She got up slowly from the Gryffindor table, and decided she would go and see Professor Dumbledore, the Transfiguration teacher, about her dreams. He was a wise man, and he would know what to do.  
  
Lily set off down the corridor towards the Transfiguration classroom and the adjoining office of Professor Dumbledore. She knew he wouldn't be sleeping, as she had come often in the mornings to talk to him about homework.  
  
She knocked softly on the weathered wooden door, on which was emblazoned a phoenix.  
  
"Come in," Professor Dumbledore's voice said pleasantly.  
  
"Ah, Lily," he said, as she opened the door and sat down on one of the poufs that adorned the comfortable office, "how may I help you?"  
  
And Lily began to tell the professor about her dreams, starting from the car crash era to the clover dream she had had last night. She told Dumbledore all of her suspicions and confessions, and wondered if she might be telling him a bit too much about her private thoughts and inner feelings.  
  
But Dumbledore listened politely, and nodded in places that he understood. After Lily was finished speaking, he sat for a while, deep in thought. Lily sat uncomfortably, as behind the professor's eyes ideas and hypotheses formed instantly.  
  
"Tell me, Miss Evans, have you been experiencing any headaches right before you lay down to sleep?" he finally asked.  
  
"Sometimes, yes, professor, but usually I just take an aspirin and sleep," Lily replied.  
  
Dumbledore nodded.  
  
"I thought so."  
  
"Do you take the muggle aspirin or the wizard's kind?" he proceeded to question.  
  
Why does it matter? Lily thought in her head, but answered that she took the muggle kind, as she had been one at the beginning of her long and complicated life.  
  
"Well, listen, Miss Evans. The story is this. If you have a headache, DO NOT take the muggle aspirin before going to bed. On wizards, it has a strange reaction, and helps you to see into the future. If the headache really is bothering you, I suggest using a wizard's medication, although I would recommend not using drugs at all (A/N: what a positive message!)."  
  
Lily sat, stunned a little bit. So the dreams had been part of a natural reaction to a medicine- but had proved to be a foresight to Lily's future.  
  
"T-Thanks, Professor Dumbledore," Lily stuttered, and tried to smile.  
  
Dumbledore chuckled.  
  
"Don't worry too much over this. Loosen up and have some fun- go into Hogsmeade or something this weekend and just spend time with your friends. You need to live your life, Lily. Have a nice day."  
  
Lily exited the professor's office slowly, and shut the door behind her.  
  
Professor Dumbledore was right, she did need to loosen up a bit. She loosened her walk, and bounced slightly as she traveled down the corridor, back towards the Great Hall and Gryffindor Tower.  
  
As she neared the Great Hall, Lily heard the sound of a trumpet. Peter Pettigrew, a chunky little boy that loved to tag around with James Potter, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin, the three most popular boys in the sixth year, was turning red with the effort of playing. Then he stopped playing and squeaked,  
  
"Announcing to you the great Remus Lupin!"  
  
Remus threw off his invisibility cloak to a smattering of applause from the people inside the Great Hall.  
  
"The amazing Sirius Black!" Peter continued.  
  
Now Sirius threw off his cloak and made an exaggerated bow towards all the directions in the Hall, to catcalls and whoops from inside.  
  
"And the magnificent JAMES POTTER!!" Peter yelled triumphantly.  
  
The handsome James shed his cloak and politely acknowledged the crowd with a queenly wave, then grinned.  
  
By this time, Lily was behind the three boys. She snatched James' cloak out of his reach, and put it on herself.  
  
Then she began running up the stairs to Gryffindor Tower.  
  
"Dammit," she heard James say to the other boys, "where'd my cloak go?"  
  
Lily giggled. Today was going to be a good day. She'd loosened up, and she wasn't going to take any more of that damned muggle aspirin.  
  
Lily was ready to begin her new life.  
  
(A/N: do you guys think I should make it a love/hate fic, or should I just go the way I'm going? Tell me in your reviews please!!) 


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer:  
  
What I do not own- the characters basically, except Dessa and Keladryna, although the name 'Keladryna' is derived from Tamora Pierce's Keladry books. I also do not own anything that has to do with Harry Potter, such as Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. I do, however, own the plot. Luv, Cassie  
  
Chapter 3:  
  
"What do you think about this robe?" asked Kel, imitating a French accent while trying on a hot pink, iridescent robe that released fairies from the navel at the press of a button.  
  
Lily and Dessa burst out laughing. The girls were spending the day in Hogsmeade, shopping for new robes to wear for the upcoming spring dance, and just hanging out with each other, living their lives.  
  
After about two hours in Madam Malkin's Hogsmeade shop, the girls finally exited, to an unmistaken sigh of relief from the assistant that had been taking care of them all afternoon.  
  
"Let's go to the Three Broomsticks," Lily said suddenly, "I've got to tell you guys something."  
  
Fifteen minutes later, the girls were seated one of the black iron, circular tables that adorned the small, brick patio behind the café. All were clutching mugs of butterbeer in their hands.  
  
"So, Lils, what did you want to tell us?" Dessa asked.  
  
"Okay. It's like this. Remember a few years ago when I started having all of the dreams about the car crash? And later, my parents died in a car crash? Well, now I'm having nightmares again. And I'm afraid that what I'm dreaming of is true," Lily finished awkwardly.  
  
"Gee," Kel began, "I don't know what to say."  
  
"Do you think you can tell us about the dream?" Dessa asked.  
  
And so Lily told her friends, a small voice in the back of her mind reminding her of Dumbledore's words- that she should try and forget about the dream and live her life  
  
(A/N- you see, Dumbledore had seen into the future and knew that Lily and James would be killed). But most of Lily was relieved that she was finally getting rid of some of this burden- now she wouldn't have to carry it all by herself.  
  
Later that night, after a fun Saturday evening in the Gryffindor common room, Lily lay awake behind the scarlet curtains of her four-poster. She hadn't taken one of those blasted muggle pills that evening, and yet Lily was still bothered by the dream, and could not fall asleep.  
  
She began to replay the dream, front to back, inside and right-side out. Soon, she found herself drifting into sleep- and into another vision.  
  
  
  
(A/N- I was going to stop it here but I decided I wouldn't. I would be really mad if somebody left me hanging like this and then didn't upload again for another month. Then again, nobody probably would be too annoyed, because this is a horrible story and if I don't get more than ten reviews after two weeks with this new chapter I'm taking it off fanfiction and writing a new L/J. All right, back to the story!)  
  
  
  
This time, Lily was flying through the air on the back of a black- robed figure. The pair zoomed over the British countryside, visible only through the illuminated wand of Lily's carrier. Lily knew she was approaching Godric's Hollow, a town a few minutes away from the Evans' former estate. (A/N-I wasn't really sure if Godric's Hollow was a town, complex, or house- but it's a town in MY STORY so don't get mad.)She wondered what was happening.  
  
"Excuse me, but could you tell me why we are flying together?" she yelled against the force of the wind to the person on who's back Lily was sitting.  
  
No answer.  
  
"Hello? Can you hear me?" Lily proceeded to yell.  
  
Still no answer.  
  
Lily decided to take a hold of the person's middle and lean around to look them in the face. What she saw made her very glad that she had secured her arms- she would have fallen to her death if she had not. She screamed, the sound piercing the night air, but the black-robed figure just stared ahead maliciously and paid her no heed.  
  
Lily had seen a pale, gaunt face with red glinting eyes, and dangerously slit-like nostrils. The thing had no lips, yet bared its teeth in a chilling grin.  
  
Then the pair began to circle down like vultures over a small cottage on Lakeview Road. They landed on the neatly trimmed lawn, and Lily fell onto the dewy grass as her carrier stood up quickly. She got up and followed him toward the dwelling, as silently as a mouse.  
  
She heard the "thing" whisper a spell and realized that it was the charm that unlocked secret doors. The thing opened the door silently, and it creaked on its' hinges ever so slightly. Lily could hear a faint singing coming from inside, and a squall from a baby. She stopped in her tracks abruptly. That was her singing- her favorite lullaby, and that was her soft singing voice, too.  
  
The thing had hidden in the shadows of the entrance hallway to keep from being seen by a tall, good-looking man who had just appeared out of a doorway.  
  
"Lily, honey," he said, "I felt a draft. Did you open the door? You know Dumbledore told us not to so we could go on hiding. Plus Harry might catch a cold."  
  
The real Lily gasped. This was James Potter talking to her future self- and there was a thing lurking in the shadows…pulling out its wand.  
  
(A/N- I know this cliffhanger's worse than the other one but I really feel like continuing this story now that I've written this chapter. And even if no one appreciates it and flames me every time they get online- I'M STILL WRITING IT! I also have to think the killing scene over in my mind, so look for the next chapter in the next month or so. (You guys do realize that the thing is Voldemort, right?) OK- review please!!! OUTLINE FOR NEXT FEW CHAPTERS- Now that Lily has found out mostly about her future she will be reluctant to succumb to James' affections toward her- but there is no way to prevent the future from happening. And there will be affections- don't you worry. Luv, Cassie ) 


End file.
